When it comes to displays, density is already good enough. Now we need depth.
Back in March Apple slipped something into the 9.7-inch iPad Pro announcement that opened some eyes, but not nearly wide enough — DCI-P3 color gamut and dynamic "True Tone" color balance. The former was introduced with the Retina 5K iMac. The latter was all new. Both matter a great deal.
Craig Hockenberry, famed developer of Twitterrific, writing for The Iconfactory:
There's only one way for manufacturers to improve displays and gain a competitive advantage. They need to make the displays "deeper"; able to show a wider range of color. It's also clear from Apple's work that they see smarter displays, with things like True Tone technology, as a way to distinguish themselves in a crowded market.
Apple is in a unique position with regard to color management. They own a technology called ColorSync that first saw the light of day in 1993 with System 7.1 on the Mac. It's also been integrated at a system-level for all of the OS X releases. It's a very mature technology that recently made its way to mobile in the iOS 9.3 release.
On the other side of the coin, Android has no color management. Companies like Samsung are going to find it impossible to pull off something like True Tone and DCI-P3 without the aid of color management.
Apple's been individually calibrating iOS device displays for a while. It's why iPhone and iPad Pro are so consistent. The company had to take it to the next level and introduce OS X-caliber color management, though, to get True Tone to work. Especially under the more rigorous demands of the DCI-P3 — what digital movies now use — color space.
Once cameras are capturing in deep color, photos and videos are rendered in it, and every phone, tablet, PC, and projector can display it, we'll be well on our way to a more colorful future.
It won't be like the shift from black and white to color, but it will be like the shift from stereo to surround sound.
Craig's article includes a ton of explanation along with photo differentials, so check it out.
Reader comments
Apple's deep color-management advantage
Woow
Hopefully,, this will come to iPhone 7
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makes you wonder why Apple didn't first introduce it to the suckers that bought the big iPad Pro.
Maybe because it wasn't ready? Maybe try thinking.
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They've got a history of this sort of thing. You think you've got the best and then a few months later they release something similar but better.
They do? You mean tech companies in general? It's the nature of technology and anyone that tries to sell you conspiracy theories of quick profiteering is someone who feels ripped off and does not understand technology.
Never buy the first gen of any product.
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Why are they suckers? Newer tech always has some new things. I think id pick the bigger one right now though
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" ... it will be like the shift from stereo to surround sound."
This is a horrible example. "Surround sound" is actually just a gimmick that makes almost no difference to audio quality, just like the "quadrophonic" sound that preceded it and a dozen or so other monikers. Anyone remember "Stereo Plus"?
Dynamic True-Tone colour with wide gamuts is actually a very useful and good thing. Not a gimmick at all.
5.1 Surround Sound, when properly set up, can give you a more immersive experience especially in movies. Color Depth can give you a more immersive visual experience.
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I doubt all the display technology research scientists agree on this: "There’s only one way for manufacturers to improve displays and gain a competitive advantage. "
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I'm confused because I thought Samsung made Apple's displays.
Are they talking about the software rendering of the color?
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How does this differ from what Samsung is doing on their Galaxy devices with the different display modes? I thought sites like Displaymate already rated many Samsung devices as having displays with superior color gamuts to many previous Apple devices as well? Would that not suggest Apple was playing catchup a little bit?
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